State Roundup, March 21, 2012

HOUSE BUDGET LACKING: Ben Giles of the Washington Examiner reports that Senate President Mike Miller says that budget plans adopted by a House panel don’t raise enough new revenue for Maryland. Miller added that lawmakers would have to be ready to raise taxes again next year under the delegates’ proposal.

PETITION TRAINING: Opponents of Maryland’s new same-sex marriage law are holding a series of closed-door training sessions to teach volunteers how to properly collect signatures to petition the measure to referendum, Annie Linskey reports for the Sun.

STATE ON TRACK: Writing in the Sun, Timothy Wheeler reports that Maryland is largely on track to meet its goal of reducing climate-warming pollution 25% by the end of the decade, according to O’Malley administration officials, but still needs legislation being debated in Annapolis to put wind turbines off Ocean City, limit sprawl and increase funding for mass transit.

A NOT-SO-RICH STATE: In writing about Senate President Mike Miller’s views on the gas tax, columnist Marta Mossburg, in the Frederick News Post, says Maryland may have one of the highest percentages of millionaires in the nation, but outside of Montgomery, Howard and a few pockets in other counties, people here are not rich.

FRACKING FEE PASSES HOUSE: Maryland would become the first state in the nation to charge energy companies a fee to finance studies on best practices for extracting natural gas from Marcellus shale, under a bill approved yesterday by the state’s House of Delegates, the AP’s Brian Witte reports in the Cumberland Times-News.

MD ON GOP RADAR: With Mitt Romney’s visit today, the protracted battle for the Republican presidential nomination is about to thrust Maryland’s GOP voters into the unusual position of having a voice in a national political contest even though they live in one of the country’s most reliably blue states, writes John Fritze in the Sun.

Josh Kurtz of Center Maryland also finds Pooran to be a more than credible candidate: He supports achieving universal health care coverage in this country and does not rule out the possibility of pushing for a single payer system. He’s been endorsed by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and the co-chairmen of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

SENATE GOP RACE: Maryland’s Republican Senate primary has hit the airwaves, with the two best-known GOP candidates — former Secret Service agent Daniel Bongino and former Defense Department official Richard Douglas — going on the radio before voters head to the polls April 3, blogs Ben Pershing for the Post. Scroll through the story to view their commercials.

AA COUNCIL TO QUESTION POLICE CHIEF: The Anne Arundel County Council subpoenaed county Police Chief James Teare, asking him to explain what he knew about County Executive John Leopold’s alleged misuse of his police detail, Allison Bourg reports in the Annapolis Capital. He is to appear before the council next Monday.

MO CO BILLS HIT LEGGETT: Victor Zapana of the Post reports that the Montgomery County Council is considering a slew of bills intended to boost economic development by making the county more business friendly. But some of the bills are pitting legislators against County Executive Ike Leggett.